It's Only Skin Now
by Dimitri Aidan
Summary: When the dust clears and you’re still standing what do you do next? That’s what Spike wants to know and when a few familiar faces show up in LA he may be on the verge of an answer.


It's Only Skin Now.

I do not own B:tVS or AtS, as evidenced by the lack of gay men in said shows.

Author: Dimitri Aidan

Unbeated, cower in fear of my inability to string a sentence together properly! ...I'm joking. Mostly.

Rating: Eventual M or thereabouts.

Pairings: Spike/Xan and Wes/Gunn for sure, maybe some other stuff as we plod along.

Timeline: Takes place after the end of Angel.

Warnings: Character death, Slash, Violence, Language, Angst, Sex, and such.

Notes: Um. The Earth. She is Round. Yes.

Summary: When the dust clears and you're still standing what do you do next? That's what Spike wants to know and when a few familiar faces show up in LA he may be on the verge of an answer.

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Prelude

Hemorrhage

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Angel had taken down the dragon, stabbing it until dark blue blood oozed everywhere and then neatly beheading it. Its wings had continued to beat after its head went rolling across the ground, body still twitching in the throes of death. Angel had looked almost absurdly pleased with himself, smirking over at Spike before diving into the seemingly never ending storm of creatures pouring out at them.

Spike had thought the siege wouldn't stop until they all lay dead but all at once they'd stopped and turned away to return to where they'd come from. Spike hadn't noticed, too busy screaming in pain. An instant before the fight had stopped he'd felt like something grabbed him and begun to pull him apart, sinking claws into his demon and tearing.

When it'd stopped he'd been curled up on his side, taking breathes he didn't need and unable to see straight for the pounding in his head. He'd felt something like this twice before, when Darla had died, but no where near as intense as this. He'd wanted to die, just stop fighting and hope something came along and was kind enough to impale him through the heart on something pointy but it had never happened. Rather Illyria had found him and done a fantastic job of buggering things up even more.

Angel was dead. Dust in some dingy alleyway, turning to nothing while Spike's back was turned. He could still taste the bitter ash of his Grandsire in his mouth and feel the gritty touch of it on his face and hands. Angel, the only family he had left, was Dead, and he hadn't even gotten to see it. Dead.

More dead. The kind of dead that even vampires didn't come back from, unless annoying law firms got involved and started fucking with family lines and turning people until their own Great Grandsires or handing out crazy amulets. He doubted said evil law firm was going to be that keen on helping out this time around what with royally fucking up their plans this time around.

Angel was Dead. Lindsey, that useless pompous psychotic wanker, was dead. Wesley was supposed to be dead but wasn't for reasons Spike wasn't yet privy to but probably had something with the Powers That Be like most totally buggered things these days, and Gunn…Gunn was a vampire.

It'd been two hours since he'd had woken up, four days since Wesley had wandered into the lobby of the Hyperion looking almost sulky, and five days since Illyria had demanded he turn Gunn.

But something in her eyes, something that screamed of Fred, had made him do it. Not an illusion of the girl he'd known and cared for because he would have seen through that, but an honest to god glimmer of her behind those milky blue eyes. There had been pain and tears that had made Illyria furious and Spike had known that whatever was left of Fred in her was influencing the Hell God. And if he hadn't been able to read the signs himself Illyria had made it very clear.

"_You will turn him." _

_If this had been any other situation on any other day with any other Hell God then Spike would have laughed and told them to bugger the hell off. But today…today he was too tired to give a damn and instead stared at the Goddess wearing the skin of one of the few people insane enough to give a damn about him and hadn't expected anything in return. _

"_Bugger off." He said finally and let his eyes drift shut. He could smell Gunn's blood and hear the rapidly fading heart beat, and part of him was gagging to just sink his teeth in and drink, to get a taste of warm fresh human blood without consequences because he deserved it, goddamn did he deserve it. _

"_Did you hear me vampire?" Illyria_'_s voice was all offended pride and fury and something else that made him open an eye in stare at her. Panic, hidden but obvious to him. It sparked in the back of the God's eyes as fists clenched and unclenched. "You will turn him." _

"_Chuck doesn't want to be a vamp Pet, leave it be." _

"_No!" This time it was all fury. Illyria grabbed him by the tatters of his shirt and held him up, feet dangling uselessly above the ground. He blinked placidly; what was she going to do, kill him? "You will do it now! I will watch no one else die." _

_There was a slightly hitch in the voice that made her sound almost worried. He sighed. _

"_Wes' death smarting some then?" He wasn't sure what he thought of an evil Demon God, probably a male Demon God in female skin at that, having the hots for Wesley. It was a strange prospect to say the least, and this was after watching his Sire slay a dragon. _

"_I care not for the death of Wesley or any mortal. It's this…body. The screams and tears, it's utterly sickening how she would scream if she was alive now to see this. Makes me want to…foolish things. Once I could have controlled your life with a whim, crushed you with a thought and then brought you back just as easily, and I would not have cared!" She dropped him onto the floor hard, turning away and putting her hands over her head. "I was all powerful but now I can't do anything but watch."_

_She turned to face him, eyes bright with fury. "You will make this screaming stop vampire, you will silence her now! If you do not I will find someone else." _

"_No, you won't." Spike frowned and, with more effort than he would have liked, managed to drag himself to his feet. He felt lightheaded in a way he hadn't since…ever, actually. Not since being turned anyway, getting a head rush wasn't something you had to worry about once your heart stopped beating. "Leave it alone Illyria." _

"_I cannot!" She screamed and to Spike's alarm tears started to form in her eyes. He had the strange urge to run away in terror at the sight. She frowned and put a hand to her face as the first drops of wetness escaped. The confusion on her face was as plain as anything could be. "I do not care, but I cannot accept this." _

"_She's really done a number on you hasn't she?"_

Leave it to Fred to get under the skin of an immortal Demon God and drive them out of their skull. She was special like that, so damn bright and perfect that there was probably no one whose heart she couldn't have wormed herself into given the time. She was like the Nibblet in that way, so damn pure that you couldn't help but like her.

It was no wonder that Wesley and Gunn had ended up in love with her. If Illyria couldn't take that then mere mortals hadn't stood any semblance of a chance.

So he'd done it. Not for Illyria but for Fred, even though part of him knew that Fred wouldn't have wanted this to happen. He might have done it a little for himself as well; Spike had never been good at being alone and with Angel dead and Drusilla off somewhere he wanted someone else. That may have influenced him giving in, to a degree.

But this wasn't what Chuck wanted and Spike had known that. He was a warrior, a White Hat through and through. In fact Gunn reminded him a lot of Xander; just a human with no special attributes spending his entire life fighting the things that went bump in the night and trying no to lose everyone he cared for in the process. To lose his soul, to be taken over by the bloodlust and urge to _hurt,_ would have ruined everything that made Gunn who he was. He was a man that went out of his way to protect people from the things that hid in the dark while not becoming one of those things.

It was tearing him apart. The damage he'd done to the office, throwing things and shattering furniture with his new vampiric strength, was proof enough of that.

On the upside Spike was now positive that it was Gunn and not a Gunn-shaped demon. No sooner had Spike given his blood to Gunn, as much as he could spare without falling into a coma himself, Illyria had stuck her hand into his chest and proclaimed with a grim smile that she'd made Gunn like him. Spike hadn't understood at first but eventually realized that she meant she'd kept his soul in place. He hadn't been sure how true that was but know he knew for sure.

They were all in the lobby. Spike sat on the stairs watching the other two men and wondering what they were thinking, Gunn stood glowered in a corner and probably cursing Spike's name, and Wesley just sat on the couch and resolutely didn't look at either at them. He reeked of sorrow like Gunn reeked of anger and confusion. Sunrise was in about thirty minutes, a new day with all that was left of their team.

Spike didn't know about them, but he couldn't help but wonder what the hell came next.

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The mood in Giles' office was a level of somber Xander hadn't encountered in a very long time. He'd been called back from Africa the day before and, after taking a few hours to sleep, had come over to Council Headquarters to find out why. Willow, Faith, Dawn, and Andrew were also present which made the absence of a certain blond slayer that much more obvious.

Xander almost opened his mouth and asked 'Who died' but the words managed to strangle themselves before escaping. That was the worst possible thing to say because saying it would make it real and with Buffy being MIA he refused to have it be his fault.

"What's up G-man?"

"Our contacts in LA have reported back to us about something that happened a few days ago. There was a lot of disturbance and the Wolfram and Hart main building suffered a great deal of damage. There was a lot of talk about an Apocalypse." Giles said, frowning slightly.

"Oh." He hated to say it but an Apocalypse wasn't really a big deal as long as Angel and his merry band were there to avert it. Considering the world was still turning they must have. "And?"

"There are rumors that Angel didn't survive."

"Oh." It was amazing how many different things that word could communicate. "Buffy-"

"Is fine for a moment. We have a bigger problem however: Wolfram and Hart is still standing and we have no idea if the rumors are true." Giles' frown deepened. "LA could be completely unprotected and it's just as much a hotbed for activity as Sunnydale was. It can't be unprotected."

Xander nodded his understanding. That was why Angel and his people were there after all. "So you're sending some of the Slayers to check it out."

"Not exactly."

Xander didn't like that way that sounded at all.

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I usually proclaim my sanity here but I've begun to doubt my own claims. Sad, innit?


End file.
